The invention relates to an abutment with a damping device, more particularly for automatic machining or conveying equipment, comprising an abutment member which is able to be moved from a first abutment position as far as a second end abutment position while subjected to a damping action, a setting member which is able to be moved by fluid power and is adapted to move the damping device connected with the abutment member perpendicularly to the direction of abutment and to move the abutment member out of an abutment plane and then back into it, and return means for the return of the abutment member from the end abutment position into the first abutment position.
Such an abutment with a damping device is for instance described in the German patent 3,629,914 or the German patent publication 3,806,436 A. In order to provide for damped movement of the abutment member the damping device in these cases has a frictional layer which may be thrust against the abutment member with the desired degree of force by an adjustment device in order to provide for an adaptation to workpieces, palettes, parts of machines and the like, traveling at different speeds and having different masses. Thus if the setting of the damping action were not to be sufficient, the abutment member would reach the end abutment at an excessive speed with such an impetus as to produce an undesired jolting and vibration of the abutting means. On the other hand an excessive damping action would lead to the danger that the abutting device would not reach the end abutment position and would therefore assume an incorrect end abutment position, something likely to lead to undesired and faulty action on the part of, for instance, machine operations or robotized handling sequences. The known devices are consequently hardly well suited for equipment in which they have to damp objects at greatly differing speeds and/or objects with greatly differing masses to ensure that the objects arrive in the desired abutment position. Since in practice the thrust of the frictional elements is not able to be adapted to the different operational conditions, the known abutments are only suitable for equipment, in the case of which the abutting objects always move in a certain speed range or always have in a certain weight range. In fact, the first adjustment of the damping action and even more so an adaptation to modified conditions is often difficult and troublesome to perform.